Charles Tyrwhitt founder Nick Wheeler: We listen to our customers

If you want to button down a way to buck the high street slump – read every feedback message from customers.

Charles Tyrwhitt founder Nick Wheeler puts his success down to good listening

Nick Wheeler, founder of Charles Tyrwhitt shirts, opens his 21st store in Glasgow next month and puts his success down to good listening.

The businessman, who set up the brand in 1986 as a student at Bristol University said: ‘The responses are the first thing I read every morning, so if someone is unhappy then we can put it right straight away.’

The brand has seen sales rise from £60million in 2008 to £129million – with half of revenues now from overseas.

The number of regular customers in Britain, the US and Europe has topped 1million and almost three quarters of all sales are online.

Mr Wheeler, named consumer entrepreneur of the year by Ernst & Young last week, also expects CT to grow 25 per cent this year and by a similar amount next year.

He added: ‘When our shirts were stuck at JFK airport in New York, it was our customers who alerted us to the problem first and we sorted it out far quicker as a result.’